Peace and Global Studies
Peace and global studies (PAGS) majors explore strategies for constructing a just and peaceful world. The goal of the program is to develop your competencies in fields contributing toward social transformation and peace.
PAGS is a great choice for students who are activists interested in the work of justice and peace: nonviolent strategies, anti-racist work, anti-poverty work, community organizing, addressing climate change and engendering more expansive human rights. The PAGS program draws from the disciplines of anthropology, economics, history, philosophy and politics to explore problems of systemic violence and how these can be addressed. The PAGS major offers students concrete grounding and enriched conceptual frameworks for strategizing for social change to address the most pressing challenges of our time.
PAGS is a rigorous major, but the challenge is invigorating! Our students are known for their serious work ethic combined with their unmatched senses of humor.
PAGS students are also known as passionate campus activists. They’ve been involved in organizations such as the REInvestment Campaign to urge Earlham to divest from coal and petroleum extraction; and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, in support of Palestinian nonviolent resistance to occupation.
Top job industries for peace and global studies majors include community and social services, education, political organizing and lobbying.
“PAGS encapsulated a variety of multidisciplinary viewpoints that explores strategies for constructing a just, equitable, and peaceful world through anti-racist and anti-poverty work, addressing climate change, human rights, and the broad work of decolonization. You’re constantly challenged, growing, and bettering yourself. You leave classrooms sometimes exhilarated, contemplative, empowered, and confused. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
Daryl Mifsud ’22
Peace and Global Studies Major
“I find comfort and beauty in sharing my experiences with other students of color while embracing our differences. PAGS helps me understand the struggles of different student groups and encourages me to take action.”
Aniqa Ali ’24
Peace and Global Studies Major
Hashem Abu Sham’a became one of the first two Rhodes Scholars from Palestine. At Earlham, he served as convener of Students for Justice and Peace in Palestine (SPJP) and was elected president of the Earlham Student Government. He is currently working on his doctorate in human geography at Oxford.
Hashem Abu Sham’a, ’17
Peace and global studies major
“When you experience disaster first-hand, it opens your eyes. I see that a lot more could have been done in New Orleans [after Hurricane Katrina]. The amount that gets done has to do with resources and involvement. Why do we rely on so few resources when there is such an abundance?”
Tyrian Robertson, ’17
Peace and global studies major
“As I was studying at Earlham, I found myself drawn to studying social problems, problems that centered on the human experience. These are the problems that keep me up doing homework until three in the morning.”
Alejandra Traslosheros Reyes, ’18
Peace and global studies major
“I couldn’t even fathom that such a major existed, and I came in not knowing what to expect. It’s a very rigorous program, but I made it. PAGS gave me a perspective as to how to conduct myself. It gave me different methods of critical thinking that a lot of people don’t use. I now see the larger implications of actions and thoughts that perpetuate or work against different systems.”
Duncan McNelis ’18
Peace and global studies major
“I am so grateful for the PAGS Department program’s connections with AFSC, I got a travel grant to go back.”
Lilly Lerner, ’13
Peace and global studies major
“So many areas of study can impart you with tools or even ways to think, but PAGS is special and distinctive in that it can help you craft a theory of action or an underlying philosophy to guide your action. There’s a lot of hard and important work to be done in this world and it becomes much more possible to stay the course when you have an informed and historically grounded perspective on social change.”
Marc Lavine ’93
Peace and global studies major
Developing active peacemakers
Peace and global studies seniors research and design public presentations on the topic of their choice. Recent topics have been: “Race and the Prison-Industrial Complex,” “Whose Bodies Matter? Drone Warfare and Surveillance” and “Is Social Media a Game-Changer for Progressive Social Movements?”
Hands-on experience
Through internships and off-campus study, peace and global studies students apply what they have learned to particular sites under the guidance of experienced organizers and activists. The Earlham Center for Global and Career Education can help you search for available programs.
A multitude of resources
The Department of Peace and Global Studies, located in LBC room 322, provides support to students and faculty interested in learning more about activism. Applied minors like Peace Corps prep and Law and Social Justice as well as the Earlham Center for Social Justice offer additional ways to engage in peace and global studies initiatives.
Our faculty
Our faculty are dedicated to documenting and building the power of organized labor, examining obstacles to social change, theorizing and reconceptualizing democracy, and organizing for greater economic and racial justice and solidarity at the local level. Contact our director to learn more about the program.
Program details
As a peace and global studies graduate, you can work around the globe. Like other PAGS alumni, you can be affiliated with non-governmental organizations, human rights groups, political campaigns, environmental organizations, alternative media, religious organizations and international agencies.
PAGS graduates work throughout the world, as rights advocates, journalists, researchers, organizers, lawyers, nurses, doctors, midwives, architects, designers, teachers, and university professors.
As a liberal arts college, Earlham offers multiple disciplinary and interdisciplinary majors and minors in which you will cultivate deep and specific knowledge and experience. Equally important, the College expects you to develop broad, general skills and proficiencies across the curriculum.
As part of your general education, you will complete six credits in each academic division of the College: humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and visual and performing arts. In addition, you will meet requirements for first-year courses, analytical reasoning, perspectives on diversity and wellness.
To earn a Bachelor of Arts in Peace and Global Studies, you must complete all general education requirements in addition to completing six core courses, as well as a minimum of three courses in one of four areas of concentration.
- Six required core courses
- Two of the following three courses:
- PAGS 100 Introduction to Economics
- PAGS 111 Introduction to Politics
- PAGS 270 Introduction to Diplomacy
- PAGS 240 Global Dynamics and World Peace
- PAGS 481 Internship
- PAGS 486 Senior Research Methods
- PAGS 488 Senior Capstone Experience
- Two of the following three courses:
- A minimum of three courses in one of four areas of concentration is required:
- Religious pacifism
- REL 330 Criminal Justice and Moral Vision
- PAGS 343 Conflict Resolution
- REL 425 Religious Responses to War and Violence
- Law & justice
- PAGS 343 Conflict Resolution
- PAGS 371 Theories of International Relations
- PAGS 372 International Law: Sovereignty, Humanitarian Law and Human Rights
- PAGS 373 International Law: Environment and Development
- Praxis
- PAGS 315 Marxism
- PAGS 343 Conflict Resolution
- PAGS 345 Urban Political Economy
- PAGS 353 Latin America to 1825
- PAGS 354 Latin America Since 1825
- PAGS 374 Methods of Peacemaking
- “Fourth generation” peace studies
- PAGS 315 Marxism
- PAGS 330 Postcolonial Theory
- PAGS 341 Contemporary Social Thought
- PAGS 370 Philosophy of Social Science
- PAGS 371 Theories of International Relations
- PAGS 374 Methods of Peacemaking
- Religious pacifism
Note: Other courses not currently listed might also count as contributing to each concentration; consult directly with the director of PAGS
Peace and global studies majors have interned around the globe, many under the guidance of experienced organizers and activists. Recently, students have interned at organizations like UNITE HERE, Win Without War, the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, the Green Party of Poland, LesQueers and World Relief Chicago.
Professors in the PAGS program and the Earlham Center for Global and Career Education can help you identify potential internship sites that match your interests.
Yes! There are multiple off-campus study programs that are a great fit for peace and global studies majors, including the border studies program in Tucson, Arizona and Tibetan Studies in northern India, among others.
Some PAGS majors also complete their internship requirement while on an off-campus study program.
If you are a passionate activist and organizer or interested in understanding systems and society so you are better able to enact change, this major may be for you. After graduating, PAGS majors work in nonprofits, political campaigns, government and law, media and many other industries.